Today, surveillance camera systems are commonly employed as a security measure. The cameras are normally used to generate a video image of an area under surveillance that is displayed and/or recorded for use by security personnel. In some cases one or more cameras are mounted to a wall or dependent from a ceiling where they may be observed by people within the area under surveillance. In other cases the cameras are hidden from view as by being placed behind one-way mirror domes or the like to avoid creating an objectionable presence and to make it difficult or to worry potential wrongdoers by making it impossible for them to locate the cameras and to see where they are directed.
Surveillance camera systems of the types just described have had several problems and limitations associated with their use. For example, where they have been located within domes that move in unison with cameras, they have not been usable outdoors due to adherence to, and accummulation of, snow and ice. Even indoors, movements of the dome may be visually detected which is undesirable for discreet surveillance.
Surveillance cameras of the prior art have also operated in preprogrammed manners in order to provide full, continuous coverage of areas of surveillance. Where manual control of the cameras has been provided, the cameras have tended not to produce smooth, continuous images since abrupt, manually controlled movements have tended to cause the cameras to wobble and vibrate, particularly where they are brought to halts as when a security guard identifies an area of interest and wishes to direct the camera in that direction for a period of time. Thus, most have been limited to about 6.degree. movement per second rates. The cameras have also typically been incapable of continuous, 360.degree.--plus panning movements. Instead, these have been mounted to actuate limit switches that border ends of arcuate paths of camera travel which serve to reverse their direction of panning movements.
It thus is seen that a need exists for a surveillance camera system that may be centrally located, indoors and outdoors, and be capable of continuous 360.degree.--plus scanning of a surveillance area. It would also be desirable for the camera to be manually controllable in a smooth manner without the camera jerking, wobbling and producing unsteady images during accelerations and deaccelerations. It would further be desirable to render the camera hidden from view without sacrifice in video quality of images produced by the camera. It further would be desirable to provide such a camera in a compact, stationery dome type housing, with an aesthetically pleasing configuration, and with the camera and its controls being readily accessible for maintenance from time to time. It is to the provision of such a surveillance camera system, therefore, that the present invention is primarily directed.